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Isotopes

Submitted by ChemPRIME Staff on Wed, 12/08/2010 - 23:57

The presence of neutrons in atomic nuclei accounts for the occurrence of isotopes— samples of an elementA substance containing only one kind of atom and that therefore cannot be broken down into component substances by chemical means. whose atomsThe smallest particle of an element that can be involved in chemical combination with another element; an atom consists of protons and neutrons in a tiny, very dense nucleus, surrounded by electrons, which occupy most of its volume. contain different numbers of neutrons and hence exhibit different "nuclidic masses". The nuclidic mass is the mass of a "nuclideAn atom having a particular number of protons and neutrons; isotopes are a set of nuclides all with the same atomic number.", where a nuclide is the term used for any atom whose nuclear composition (Number of protons and neutrons) is defined. For example, naturally occurring hydrogen has two stable nuclides,
11H and
21H, which also are isotopes of one another. More than 99.98 percent is “light” hydrogen,
11H. This consists of atoms each of which has one proton, one electronA negatively charged, sub-atomic particle with charge of 1.602 x 10-19 coulombs and mass of9.109 x 1023 kilograms; electrons have both wave and particle properties; electrons occupy most of the volume of an atom but represent only a tiny fraction of an atom's mass., and zero neutrons. The rest is “heavy” hydrogen or deuteriumThe isotope of hydrogen having one neutron in its nucleus.,
21H, which consists of atoms which contain one electron, one proton, and one neutron. Hence the nuclidic mass of deuterium is almost exactly twice as great as for light hydrogen. By transmutation of lithium, it is also possible to obtain a third isotope, tritiumThe isotope of hydrogen that has two neutrons in its nucleus.,
31H. It consists of atoms whose nuclei contain two neutrons and one proton. Its nuclidic mass is about 3 times that of light hydrogen.

The discovery of isotopes and its explanation on the basis of an atomic structure built up from electrons, protons, and neutrons required a change in the ideas about atoms which John Dalton had proposed. For a given element all atoms are not quite identical in all respects―especially with regard to mass. It is the number and distribution of electrons which occupy most of the volume of an atom which determines the chemical behavior of atoms. The number of protons in the nucleusThe collection of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom that contains nearly all of the atoms's mass. of each element is important in determining its chemical properties, because the total positive charge of the nucleus determines how the electrons are distributed. All atoms of the same element have the same atomic numberThe number of protons in the nucleus of an atom; used to define the position of an element in the periodic table; represented by the letter Z., but different isotopes have different nuclidic masses.

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